Rigid Pavement Design
(AUSTROADS, A Guide to The Structural Design of
Road Pavement), 1987, 1991, 1992 (Revision)
a.k.a NAASRA (National Association of
Australian State Road Authorities), 1979
1
Overview 1
Austroads is the association of State, Territory, and
Federal Road and traffic authorities in Australia. It
was established in 1989 to replace NAASRA (National
Association of Australian State Road Authorities)
Austroads published A Guide to the Structural Design
of Road Pavement in 1992, renewed May 2008, last
updated Feb 2010)
This design method is based on the USA Portland
Cement Association method with revisions to suit
Australian condition.
All Rigid Pavement are designed on the presumption
of uniform support and cannot be expected to
perform as simply-supported structures.
2
Overview 2
A bound or lean-mix concrete subbase is
recommended under a concrete pavement :
To resist erosion of the subbase and limit pumping at joints
and slab edges
To provide uniform support under the pavement
To reduce defelection at joints and enhance load transfer
across joints (especially if no other load transfer devices
are provided, such as dowels)
To assist in the control of shrinkage and swelling of high-
volume-change subgrade soils
The thickness design approach outlined in this
section is based on analytical models and field
testing of pavements with typical joint spacing and
range of thickness for roads.
3
Guide to Pavement Technology
by Austroads
4
Pavement Design System by
Austroads (Chapter Framework)
5
Rigid Pavement Types
Jointed Plain (unreinforced) concrete pavements
(PCP), there are two main types :
Slabs 4.2 m long, with undowelled skewed joints
Slabs 4.5 m long, with dowelled square joints
Jointed Reinforced Concrete Pavement (JRCP)
Continuously Reinforced Concrete Pavements
(CRCP)
Steel Fibre Reinforced Concrete Pavements (SFCP)
6
Subbase Types
The purpose of the subbase is to provide uniform support to
the base concrete layer and provide sufficient resistance to
prevent erosion of subbase material under traffic and
environmental conditions.
For the purpose of rigid pavement design, a bound subbase is
defined as being composed of either:
cement stabilised crushed rock with not less than 5% by mass
cementitious content to ensure satisfactory erosion resistance
(verifiable by laboratory erodability testing) – the cementitious
content may include cement, lime/fly ash and/or ground
granulated blast furnace slag
dense-graded asphalt
rolled lean concrete having a characteristic 28-day strength of not
less than 5 MPa. Lean-mix concrete (LMC) has a characteristic 28-
day compressive strength of not less than 5 MPa and is designed to
have low shrinkage, typically less than 450 microstrain
7
Minimum Subbase Types
The selection of the minimum subbase type
is determined from Table 9.1 using the
estimated design traffic.
8
Factors used in Thickness
Determination
Effective Subgrade Strength
Concrete Strength
Design Traffic
Concrete Shoulders
Project Reliability
9
Effective Subgrade Strength
10
Concrete Strength
The flexural concrete strength used in the base
thickness design procedure should reflect the time
at which traffic is being applied to the road.
Typically, the 28-day characteristic flexural
strength (modulus of rupture) of the concrete is
used as the design strength.
The minimum characteristic design concrete
flexural strength for concrete pavements with a
design traffic of 106 HVAG or more, is 4.5 MPa at 28
days.
11
Concrete Shoulders
Concrete shoulders enhance the pavement performance and
enable a lesser base thickness to be adopted. For the purposes
of this document, the concrete shoulder must be either
integral or structural (both as defined) in order to satisfy the
‘with shoulder’ criteria.
Integral concrete shoulders are made up of the same concrete
and are the same thickness as the base pavement, and are cast
integrally with the base pavement with a minimum width of
600 mm. The minimum width for integral cast shoulders in the
median lane may be reduced to 500 mm.
A structural shoulder is a tied shoulder that is keyed by
corrugating the joint and has a minimum width of 1.5 m, or is
a 600 mm integral widening outside of the traffic lane (this
may include integral channel or kerb/channel)
12
Design Traffic
13
Axle Group Types
For pavement design purposes, the
following (heavy vehicle) axle group
types are identified:
1. Single Axle with Single Tyres (SAST)
2. Single Axle with Dual Tyres (SADT)
3. Tandem Axle with Single Tyres (TAST)
4. Tandem Axle with Dual Tyres (TADT)
5. Triaxle with Dual Tyres (TRDT)
6. Quad-Axle with Dual Tyres (QADT)
14
15
16
17
Traffic Load Distribution (TLD)
The TLD provides information necessary to evaluate
the pavement damage caused by the HVAG,
specifically:
the proportions of all axle groups that are a particular axle
group type
for each axle group type, the proportion of axles applied at
each load magnitude.
In the absence of WIM data, a presumptive TLD
needs to be selected. The TLDs included in
Appendix D are representative of the results from
WIM surveys undertaken throughout Australia
18
Appendix D (sample)
19
Tabel TLD hasil
WIM & TC survey
From Table H 1, it is noted that the sum of the proportions of axles
which are single axle single tyre (SAST) and tandem axle with single
tyres (TAST) is 0.3799 + 0.0216 = 0.40.
That is, on average, each 100 HVAG of loading includes 40 steer axles.
To estimate the average number of axle groups per heavy vehicle, it is
assumed that there is one SAST or one TAST (steer axles) per heavy
vehicle.
Therefore on average 100 HVAG of loading result from the passage of
40 heavy vehicles.
Thus, the average number of axle groups per heavy vehicle is 100/40
= 2.5
20
Presumptive
Values of TLD
21
Project Reliability
The Project Reliability is the probability that the pavement, when constructed to
the chosen design, will outlast its design traffic before major rehabilitation is
required. In regard to these reliability procedures, a project is defined as a
portion from a uniformly designed and (nominally) uniformly constructed road
pavement which is subsequently rehabilitated as an entity
In the design procedure, the axle group loads (Section 7.5) are multiplied by a
load safety factor (LSF). The load safety factors used in the equations in Section
9.4.2 are derived from the values in Table 9.2 according to the desired project
reliability (Section 2.2.1) for a specified pavement type
22
Design Steps
Select Trial
Pavement
Traffic Loading Analysis
Fatigue & Erosion
Analysis
23
Design Criteria
Expected Repetition (Nx) Traffic Load
Allowable Repetition-Fatigue (Nf) MR, k
Allowable Repetition-Erosion (Ne) EF
Criteria :
24
Two Mode of Analysis
Fatigue Analysis
to control fatigue cracking
Erosion Analysis
To control foundation and shoulder erosion,
pumping, and faulting
25
Fatigue Analysis
The objective of fatigue analysis is to determine the minimum
thickness of the concrete required to control fatigue cracking
This is done by comparing the expected axle repetitions with
the allowable repetitions for each axle load and ensuring that
the cumulative repetitions are less than the allowable
Allowable axle repetitions depend on the stress ratio factor,
which is the ratio of the equivalent stress of the pavement to
the modulus of rupture of the concrete
The equivalent stress of the pavement depends on the
thickness of the slab and the sub-base and sub-grade ‘k’
The following chart can be used to determine the allowable
load repetitions based on the stress ratio factor
The following tables give equivalent stress values for
pavements without concrete shoulders and with concrete
shoulders, respectively
26
Distress Modes
The procedure for the determination of the
thickness of rigid pavements is based on the
USA 1984 Portland Cement Association
method (Packard 1984). The two distress
modes considered in this procedure are:
flexural fatigue cracking of the pavement base
subgrade/subbase erosion arising from repeated
deflections at joints and planned cracks.
27
Thickness
Design
Procedure
Fatigue Distress Modes
29
Erosion Distress Modes
30
Coefficient for prediction of
equivalent stress
31
Coefficient for prediction of
erosion factors
32
Minimum Concrete Base Thickness
33
Concrete Base Thickness (EC01)
34
Concrete Base Thickness (EC02)
35
Design Example of Austroads
Give the design of PCP using the following
design parameter :
4 lane National Roads in Indonesia
Design Subgrade CBR 5%
Use presumptive value for TLD
Flexural Strength of the concrete 4.5 MPa
Design Life 40 years with Growth Factor = 4%
Dowelled, with concrete shoulder
AADT dan %HV silakan anda asumsikan
36
37
38
39
Provision of Dowels
The thickness design procedure provides for the option of
dowelled or undowelled contraction joints. Dowel bars are to
be plain round steel bars of Grade 250N and 450 mm long
and placed at 300 mm centres. Dowels should be straight
with the 'expansion/contraction end' free from burrs.
Appropriate dowel diameters are given in Table 9.9.
40
Provision of Tie Bars
Tie bars prevent separation of the pavement at longitudinal
joints, whilst allowing warping or curling to occur without
excessive restraint. Their design and long-term integrity is of
utmost importance because their failure would create a
‘without-shoulder’ loading condition which could reduce the
pavement design life by up to 50%
Tie bars are typically 12 mm in diameter, Grade 500N
deformed steel bars, 1 m long, placed centrally in the joint.
The spacing is determined in accordance with the subgrade
drag theory (see Equation 9.6) and is influenced by parameters
such as base thickness, interlayer friction, and distance to the
nearest free edge of pavement
41
Reinforcement of JRCP
Equation 9.6
42
Reinforcement of CRCP
-Longitudinal Reinforcement-
43
Reinforcement of CRCP
-Longitudinal Reinforcement-
44
Crack Spacing
45
Reinforcement of CRCP
-Transverse Reinforcement-
The required area of transverse reinforcing
steel (As) in continuously reinforced
pavements is consistent with that provided
in jointed pavements and is calculated using
Equation 9.6.
46
